Of PEDs and Men

Nick Fierro

Whether or not Lane Johnson does turn out, as reported yesterday, to be the second Eagle to start the season with a performance-enhancing drug suspension, doesn't matter. The report alone brings to light the hypocrisy of the NFL when it comes to long-term player safety.

It's 2014, going on 2015, more than three years since the current collective bargaining agreement between the owners and players was signed with no firm language in place on definitive drug tests. Fact is, the NFL doesn't yet draw blood.

In your best Joe Pesci voice, can you believe that, in this day and age?

Keeping in mind that nothing will ever be able to prevent some athletes from attempting to illegally gain an edge, here are three things the NFL can do now to curtail the extremely dangerous culture of "bigger, stronger, faster" that has permeated not only this league but football at all levels.

1. Scrap the worthless urine tests. Go for the blood. An Olympic-caliber testing program should be implemented. Yesterday. If not sooner. Granted, if the league started doing this tomorrow, we might have a bunch of truck drivers and such in uniform on opening day for every team because so many might fail initially.

2. Adopt a weight limit. Can 300-plus pounds be a healthy weight for any human being, even for 7-footers, of which there are none in the NFL anyway? Ask your doctor. Go ahead, we'll wait. In the meantime, consider that with all the emphasis and rules changes the league has placed recently on reducing concussions because of their deadly effects over time, it apparently is unconcerned with how the knees and ankles (not to mention hearts) of former players will hold up after years of pounding at extremely elevated playing weights. Think there are any human knees, ankles or shoulders in operation today, bionic or otherwise, that are built to withstand 300-plus pounds colliding with another 300-plus pounds? Again, ask your doctor. We'll wait.

3. Penalize the teams as well as the players. If teams are forced to operate shorthanded for as long as their players are suspended, that would change a lot. Imagine the Eagles being limited to 51 active players instead of 53 for the first four weeks. Teams subject to those kinds of sanctions, which are not in place under the current rules, would be much more vigilant in monitoring their players' activities. In addition, it would make the players more accountable for violations. Both would be good things.

If commissioner Roger Goodell would stop playing G. Gordon Liddy and adjust his target a little lower, he might find better fixes for a game we can barely recognize anymore.